


i could get used to this

by trobedrights



Category: Space Force (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Single Parents, author had multiple ben schwartz dad breakdowns while writing, f tony single dad au bc i can, i didn't wanna tag it cause it looks nicer with just the one relationship tag, there's changela but then they break up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trobedrights/pseuds/trobedrights
Summary: F. Tony is a single dad, Chan has a few crises, they're in love.
Relationships: Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	i could get used to this

**Author's Note:**

> this could've used like 1k more words of them getting closer but i didn't feel like it so this is what u get! my first longish chantony fic though that's sexy yeah hope you enjoy

Every so often, F. Tony mentions his child.

It’s obviously a running joke, but it’s gotten extremely complex. Occasionally, he’ll ask for time off work to go look after her. Naird sighs and allows it because Tony is a difficult man to argue with.

One day, Chan suggests that he might actually be telling the truth. Everyone scoffs at him.

“He can barely even manage his job, let alone a child,” Naird says. Chan refrains from pointing out that Naird doesn’t do the greatest job managing his own child.

“He’s not mature enough for that,” Mallory says. Chan refrains from pointing out that Tony had told him about how Mallory had screamed _fuck you_ at a potential candidate to go to the moon.

Angela keeps it short. No explanation needed. “Have you _met_ him?” 

Chan refrains from pointing out that yes, he _has_ met him, and sometimes he feels more of a connection with him than he does with Angela, his own girlfriend.

Thinking about that scares him, though. So he tries to pretend everything is fine, and he decides that Tony is definitely just fucking with all of them.

Chan & Tony hang out as much as they really can during work hours with such different jobs. Tony usually brings his lunch into the lab and sits on a table eating it. If it was anyone else it would bother the hell out of Chan, but he doesn’t really mind when it’s Tony. He always makes him laugh.

One day, while Tony is doing something on his phone, Chan abruptly says, “Hey, wanna come to my apartment sometime?”

Tony glances up and smiles. “Sure.”

Chan smiles back. His face feels way too hot for asking a friend to hang out with him.

Chan drives Tony home after work that day. Somehow he doesn’t think Tony listens to K-pop, so he lets him pick the music. 

It ends up being Paramore. Yeah, that tracks.

“So what exactly are we doing?” Tony asks as they get out of the car.

“I didn’t think that far ahead,” Chan admits. “Just watching TV or something.”

“Sounds good. I have to leave in like, an hour, though. The daycare closes pretty soon.”

Chan squints at him. He’s not sure what Tony’s trying to hide, or if he’s just having fun living a really elaborate lie, but he decides not to pry. “Cool. What do you like to watch?”

“Anything, really. What are you watching right now?”

“Saiki K.”

“Oh yeah, the pink haired dude.”

“Yeah. How do you know that?”

“I pick up a lot of random information from spending the entire day on the Internet.”

They settle into the couch, Chan grabbing the remote and pressing play. As they watch, Chan explains all the plot points to Tony. Usually people get kind of annoyed when he does this, but Tony seems genuinely interested.

The hour passes more quickly and with less awkwardness than he’d expected. Eventually, Tony stretches and stands up. “Well, I have to go get Ellie.”

Almost accusatory, Chan says, “You said her name was Elliott.”

Tony gives him a weird look. “...Yeah. Ellie is short for Elliott.”

Chan mentally curses himself. “Oh. Makes sense.”

“Oooo-kay. Well, bye.”

He waves awkwardly and slumps back down on the couch once Tony is gone, feeling like he’s messed something up.

Maybe he should just trust him. Sure, he’s gotta be lying about the whole daughter thing, but he’s not a bad guy, just...intense.

Yes, he decides. That’s what he’ll do.

He goes into work the next morning and sees Tony lounging in the corner. He tries to go talk to him, but Tony gets up and leaves the second he comes close. He doesn’t come to the lab for lunch either.

Finally, he manages to cut him off in the hallway at the end of the day. “Are you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“The thing about your kid.”

Tony looks at him blankly. “What are you talking about?”

“The...never mind,” he trails off, realizing Tony has no idea what he’s talking about. “Okay, not about that, but you’ve been avoiding me all day.”

“I haven’t been avoiding you.”

“You can’t deny it, Tony.”

“Jesus, you don’t have to be such a control freak all the time.”

Chan steps back, hurt. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know, Chan.”

“Okay, well you don’t have to be such an asshole all the time.”

“So that’s all you see me as?”

“It’s kind of hard not to! Because that seems to be all you want to be seen as!”

“I just can’t-”

“Can’t what?”

Tony shakes his head. “See you tomorrow.”

Chan watches him go with an aching feeling in his heart. He’s not sure he’s ever seen him legitimately angry before.

And what the hell, heart? There shouldn’t be an aching feeling there; Tony was being annoying for no reason. And he’s just a friend, anyway. Barely a friend. A colleague.

Angela comes up to him a couple seconds later. “What was that about?”

He turns to her, shaking himself out of his daze. “Hm?”

“Tony just walked away angrily. Does he even get angry?”

Chan avoids the question. “Hey, we haven’t gone on a real date in a while. We should probably do that.”

Angela looks as unexcited as he feels. “Hm. Yeah. The usual? Next Friday?”

The usual is Olive Garden. Both of them feel weird going anywhere fancier.

He nods and Angela kisses him on the cheek. It feels more like a sisterly gesture than anything else.

He can’t help but note that it hurts less watching her walk away.

Chan revs up his truck and bangs his head against the steering wheel.

Before he knows it, he’s looking up directions to the nearest daycare. He’s not really sure what his plan is when he gets there, or if Tony has ever actually even been there. If he hasn’t Chan will seem extremely creepy.

Actually, he’ll seem extremely creepy either way. He considers not doing anything at all, but he has to. He doesn’t know what he’s trying to prove to himself, but clearly it’s something important, so he drives off Space Force property and goes to the right instead of the left, heading for Sunny Days Daycare.

God, that’s a generic name. He’s going to make fun of it with Tony if he gets the chance.

He gets there about fifteen minutes later, pulling into a parking spot next to what he’s pretty sure is Tony’s car.

Okay, he’s actually here. So he must be...what? Hooking up with some daycare teacher? No, not _at_ the fucking daycare. Chan has no idea what’s going on here; he had considered that Tony could actually have a child but now that it’s actually a real possibility it makes less and less sense.

But there he is. Walking out of the building holding a little girl’s hand, smiling down at her like she’s the most important thing in his life.

Holy shit.

He slinks down in his seat, hoping Tony won’t see him, and he thinks he could’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for the plant stickers on his truck that made it instantly recognizable.

Tony picks up the girl and puts her in the back of his car, strapping her into the child seat. He says something to her that Chan doesn’t hear and she giggles uncontrollably.

They’re really sweet together, actually.

Tony walks over to his car and knocks on the window. “Chan?”

Chan slinks down further. “I’m not here,” he calls.

“Roll down the window.”

He sighs and does as Tony asks. “Hi, Tony.”

“What are you doing?”

He opens his mouth, then closes it, then opens and closes it again. “That’s a good question, actually.”

He glances over at Tony’s car, at Ellie, and points at her. “She’s real.”

Tony raises his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“I thought- I mean, not just me- everyone thought-”

Chan feels bad saying it now, after seeing the way Tony & Ellie interacted. He clearly loves her more than anything, and she seems happy.

“Never mind,” he decides. “Just wanted to see you.” That was part of the truth, at least.

“Yeah. About today...can that have never happened?”

Chan nods, relieved. “Never happened, got it. I’ll leave now.” 

He moves to roll the window up, but Tony stops him. “Wait. Wanna have dinner with us?”

“Um. I’m not really the best with kids.”

“You’ll be fine, come on!”

“Okay.”

Chan follows Tony’s car to his apartment, and for the entire drive, he considers just turning a random way and escaping, because this is making him way too nervous. But he sticks with it.

Once they get there, Tony ushers him in. “Do you want a tour or something? It’s weird that you’ve never been here before.” He continues speaking, rambling on about something or other, but Chan is distracted by Ellie staring at him.

He tries to look as friendly as possible, but she still looks vaguely suspicious. Finally, she tugs on Tony’s arm and says, “Who is he?”

“Chan! A friend from work. He’s gonna have dinner with us tonight, okay?”

She shrugs. “Okay. Are we still making Surprise Pancakes?”

“Duh!”

“...What are Surprise Pancakes?” Chan asks.

She looks at him incredulously. “You don’t know what Surprise Pancakes are?”

Tony pats her on the head. “No one knows what Surprise Pancakes are, Ellie-belly. That’s a certified F. Tony Scarapiducci invention!”

“Oh god,” Chan mutters. “Is this even going to be edible?”

They’re actually really good.

Apparently it just means throwing whatever you want into pancake batter, which Chan was a little scared to see the end results of, but it worked out. 

He cuts his pancakes neatly with a knife and fork. 

“Why are you doing that?” Ellie asks, her mouth full of pancakes, stuffing another in.

He shrugs. “It’s just one of my things.”

“You’re weird,” she says.

Tony points his fork at her. “Hey. Don’t be rude.”

“I don’t mind. Besides,” Chan says, leaning forward, “ _you’re_ weird.”

She giggles a little and turns to Tony. “I like him.”

“Y’know, I can still hear you.”

She sticks her tongue out at him and he returns the gesture, Tony watching them both fondly.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Chan thinks that he could get used to this.

Chan comes over almost every day after work for the next couple of weeks. He feels like he’s invading on something, but Tony keeps inviting him back, so he might as well go.

On Friday, while they’re watching TV and Tony is in the bathroom, Ellie abruptly says, “My dad likes you.”

Chan coughs, his face flushing. “Excuse me?”

“He likes you.”

“Okay, but what exactly do you mean by that?”

Ellie smiles at him knowingly. Sometimes he swears she’s smarter than him and all the other scientists combined. Do you lose a weird form of wisdom when you grow up?

Thinking about all that reminds him. “Oh _shit_.”

“You’re not supposed to say that word around me.”

“Sorry, just forgot something.”

“What’d you forget?”

He sighs. “A date.”

“You have a date? You’re supposed to be with us.”

“Technically I’m supposed to be on the date.”

She stares him down, and he gives in.

“Okay, fine, I wanna stay with you guys, but I can’t stand Angela up. She’s my girlfriend and I’ve barely even seen her recently.”

“Why do you have a girlfriend?”

He sighs and rubs his forehead. “I don’t know, Ellie. Look, tell your dad that I had to go, okay?”

She frowns. “He’ll be sad.”

“Yeah. Yeah, he will.”

“I don’t wanna make him sad.”

“You- okay.” Chan reminds himself that this is a six-year-old he’s dealing with, he can’t expect her to be rational. “I’ll write him a note, okay?”

She nods. “Are you gonna be here tomorrow?”

He takes a second to think. “I hope so.” And that’s the truth.

When he turns on the car, it automatically starts playing Paramore from his phone. 

It’s kind of become a tradition. Tony has successfully converted Chan into liking the band, and clearly managed to do the same with Ellie years ago. But right now he can’t listen to anything; his brain is already overheating.

_My dad likes you_.

Okay, he guesses it makes sense. Tony does seem to have a particular soft spot for him. But it doesn’t make sense that hearing that gives him butterflies in his stomach, and that he wishes he was back in that apartment that already felt like home despite having first been there two weeks ago.

_Maybe_ , a voice in his head says, _It’s not the apartment that feels like home. Maybe it’s Tony._

Oh, fuck.

He wants to call Angela and tell her everything over the phone, but she deserves better than that. They had a pretty good relationship- even if, now that he looks back on it, it was more like being best friends than anything else. So he goes to their date.

She’s already sitting at their usual table. He sits down across from her. “Hello, Angela.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Hello, Angela? Are we having a business meeting?”

“Sorry. Hey, wait, are you okay?” She looks like she’s been crying.

“I don’t know, Chan. Are you okay? Are we okay?”

This is it. This is his moment. He takes a deep breath and begins to say it. “I’m-”

Before he even gets the second word out, Angela blurts, “I’m a lesbian!”

He blinks. “What?”

“I think I’m a lesbian. No, I know I am, I was just scared and I was dating you because I do really like you and I thought it was in a romantic way but now I realize that I was just trying to be straight or something. I’m sorry.”

He leans back in his chair. “Oh my God.”

“I know, I shouldn’t have-”

“No, it’s not that, I was- I’m gay.”

Now it’s her turn to be taken by surprise. “You’re _what_?”

“I’m gay, I did the same thing with you that you apparently did with me.” He starts to laugh. “Oh my God, we’ve been dating for months for no reason.”

She begins to laugh with him, the tension between them dissipating. “Well, that’s...you were a pretty good boyfriend for a gay man.”

“You were a pretty good girlfriend for a lesbian.”

“We’re so stupid, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess we are.” He glances out the window. It’s starting to get dark. “Um, I actually have to go.”

She pouts. “Really? We can still have dinner, we’re still best friends.”

“Oh, definitely. But today I have to go tell Fuck Tony I’m in love with him.”

Her jaw drops. “I’m sorry, you have to go tell _who now_ you’re in love with him?”

He grins at her. “See ya, Angie.”

“You are not getting away with this!” she yells after him. “You’re gonna tell me all about this later!”

Once he’s in the car, he drives as fast as he can to Tony’s apartment. There’s no space for him to park, so he loops around and parks at the end of the street, jumping out of the truck and running the rest of the way there.

It’s raining. Oh boy, this is gonna be dramatic.

He gets there and knocks on the door as loud as he can. “Tony? Ellie?” he yells.

It feels like hours pass by, even though it’s probably only a minute before Tony answers the door. “Chan? What are you doing here? Also, you’re soaked. And out of breath. Did you run here?”

“Kind of, yes. I didn’t really plan what I was going to say.”

“Okay, well, Ellie’s waiting for her bedtime story, so make it snappy.”

“I...have feelings for you. I just went on my date with Angela but before that I found out that you liked me and that sent me into a crisis and I realized that I like you too and I was going to break up with her but she broke up with me first.”

Tony gapes at him for a second, then laughs in delight. “Are you doing a fucking rain confession scene?”

Chan points a finger at him. “Shut up. It’s my rain confession scene. The point is, I was with Angela all that time because I thought I was supposed to be but it’s been you all along, hasn’t it, since that stupid POTUS present.”

“Oh, that was fun.”

“It was fun because it was with you and you’re fun and I think you’re it for me and I don’t know if that’s weird or way too huge to say at the moment but I don’t care. You’re it for me.”

Tony leans against the doorway, smiling. “Way to spring all your emotions on a guy, Chan.”

Chan looks at him incredulously. “I just poured my heart out to you, are you not gonna give me a speech in return?”

“Oh, I will, my brain and heart are going a thousand miles per minute right now and I’m trying to stay calm. Ohhh my god. Oh holy shit, okay, no more staying calm. You’re it for me too or whatever, I think I knew that since you told me we did great. All the times that I’ve avoided you was just because I was scared, but I guess I’m not scared anymore.”

“You’ve known since POTUS present day and you didn’t _tell me_?!”

“It was so obvious you and Angela were gonna end up together!”

“Yeah, and we all know how well that went!” 

They look at each other for a second, expressions softening. “I love you,” Tony says.

“I love you too.” Chan pulls Tony in by his tie and kisses him, the taller man making a surprised sound but quickly leaning into it.

They’re interrupted by a cough from the doorway. “A- _hem_!”

Ellie is standing there, her arms crossed. “I was supposed to get a bedtime story.”

“Oh shit. I mean fuck. I mean...whoopsie daisies.” Tony walks over to Ellie and scoops her in his arms. 

Chan smiles at the sight of them, wondering how he ever could’ve thought Tony couldn’t be an amazing father.

“See you tomorrow, then?” Chan says.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday.”

Chan shrugs. “We can do things on Saturdays if we’re dating now.”

“Are we- I mean- are we- yeah. Dating. Are we dating? Yup, dating. That’s- wow.”

Ellie whacks him on the head. “He likes you back, Daddy,” she says teasingly.

“Yeah, I got that, Ellie-belly, thank you.”

Chan watches them for a second, then closes the door and walks back to his car, a content grin on his face.

He blasts _Still Into You_ all the way home, singing along at the top of his lungs.

**Author's Note:**

> might make more fics in this universe ellie scarapiducci new best space force character


End file.
